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Fire lookout · Deschutes County, Oregon

Finley Butte Lookout Site

Deschutes County, OR: 60-foot pole L-4 lookout built on Finley Butte near La Pine in 1932; removed, and the summit now holds a shed and radio gear.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. Tower removed; the summit is now a shed and communications site

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown
Trail
No tower to climb. A 2022 visit reached the top by the Finley Butte Road from La Pine, past a signed quarry.

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Cab on a tower60-foot pole tower with L-4 cabThe design: L-4
Built of
Wood
Built
1932
Height
60 ft (18.3 m)
Elevation
4,748 ft (1,447 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service, Deschutes National Forest
Land
Federal land
Location
Deschutes County, Oregon
Coordinates
43.65009, −121.42959
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-finley-butte

View from the cab

What the lookout saw from its cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and its recorded height.

Downloads about 3.4 MB of terrain data the first time.

Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1932 Built60-foot pole tower with L-4 cabSources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, willhiteweb.com
  2. 1934 EventPanoramic photographs taken from the site (February and June 1934)Sources: firetower.org, willhiteweb.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1936 StaffedShevlin-Hixson Company stationed a man on the butte in the last week of MaySources: willhiteweb.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. No record between 1936 and 2011
  5. 2011 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterRegistered May 20, 2011; nominated by Ray KresekSource: firetower.org
  6. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. When it came down is not recorded.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Finley Butte rises about four miles southeast of La Pine in Deschutes County, on the Deschutes National Forest.1,2 A 60-foot pole tower with an L-4 cab went up there in 1932, according to the register and two other lookout histories.1,2,3

Panoramic photographs were taken from the top in 1934 and again in 1938.1,3 In 1936 the Shevlin-Hixson Company had a man stationed on the butte for the last week of May.4,3

The Forest Lookouts page marks the tower as removed, and the register says it is now gone.4,1 With no tower left, the summit view runs in only one direction, north.3

The summit today has a shed and communications equipment, and a rock pit lies below the hill.3 A visitor in 2022 reached the top from La Pine along the Finley Butte Road, turning toward a signed quarry about three miles in and then climbing the hill.3 That visitor also noticed an old gate near the top that seemed damaged and had been open for several years.3

  1. Finley Butte Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites register, http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/finley-butte-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Finley Butte Fire Lookout Tower, Firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/finleybutte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Finley Butte Lookout Site, WillhiteWeb.com, https://willhiteweb.com/oregon_lookouts/finley_butte/la_pine_008.htm (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  4. Finley Butte, Forest Lookouts (Oregon), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/finley-butte.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Finley Butte Lookout panoramic 6-13-1934
Finley Butte Lookout panoramic 6-13-1934 (1934)Photo: National Archives-Pacific Northwest Region, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source
Finley Butte Lookout site 2007
Finley Butte Lookout site 2007 (2007)Photo: Howard Verschoor, via Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: links firelookout.com · No licence stated on the site; facts only (coordinates, elevation, built/destroyed years, design, agency). Photos mirrored with the site's stated credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: links Ron Kemnow's Forest Lookouts sites (westlookouts, californialookouts, idaholookouts, montanalookouts, oregonlookouts and washingtonlookouts .weebly.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, status word, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, township-range-section, height and design hints, links). The site's own newspaper quotes, citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, visiting details, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

Firefinder takes facts (places, dates, numbers) from these sources and writes its own words. See all sources and licences.